Antec Lanboy Air review

1 of 2

Gallery

Verdict:

An interesting concept that doesn’t work in practice, the Lanboy is overpriced and not very effective at cooling components.

Review Date: 20 Apr 2011

Price when reviewed: £144

Buy it now for: £102
(see more store prices)

Supplier: http://www.scan.co.uk

Reviewed By: Tom Morgan

Our Rating 2 stars out of 5

With an exposed outer frame and mesh side panels, Antec’s Lanboy Air case looks like a giant Meccano set. It’s appropriately customisable, with lots of removable parts, a modular interior and two sturdy carry handles that make it easier to transport.

It takes a while to remove the six thumbscrews that hold on each side panel, but building a PC inside the Lanboy is relatively simple. The motherboard tray is removable and the power supply can be mounted at the top or bottom of the case, so there’s a lot of room to add components.

There are only three external 5.25in drive bays, but six internal 3.5in bays and two 2.5in bays designed specifically for SSDs provide plenty of room for storage. A suspension system holds each hard disk in place without transferring vibration to the case, but they wobble dramatically when the case is knocked.

A generous five 120mm fans cool the interior components. As well as a single rear exhaust and two side-panel fans to cool any expansion cards, the two front intake fans have individual fan control dials to reduce volume or improve cooling power. The side panel and rear fans use blue LEDs to illuminate the case interior. There are further mounts for a colossal ten 120mm fans, but this would make your PC sound like a vacuum cleaner.

Unfortunately, the Lanboy is flawed because airflow isn’t directed across components effectively, escaping the case through the mesh panels. With its high price, there’s very little reason to choose this over far cheaper cases that offer cooler and quieter computing.

Prev Next